Chapter One: Half a Genius

  "What's going on?", Gao Hong opened his eyes again, but was shocked to find himself in a police station. What was even more unbelievable was that he, who was already nearly fifty years old, had turned into a child. Look at those small arms and legs, probably only around ten years old...

  Although born in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the first young coach in the country, Gao Hong was not unfamiliar with the term "crossing", but he had never thought that he would have such an opportunity. In a short while, Gao Hong learned from the residual memories of this new body that it is now the year 2000, and this child was born in a small mountain village in Guizhou, only 12 years old. Two years ago, his father, who had been dependent on him for survival, unfortunately passed away. Because his uncle, who was supposed to take care of him, treated him badly, this stubborn child ran away in anger, but unfortunately encountered a criminal gang and was controlled by them to beg for money. Recently, during the process of public security police capturing this criminal gang, one of the leaders tried to use this child as a hostage to escape, but was shot dead by a SWAT sniper. However, that bastard did not die immediately, and before he died, he viciously threw the child out, hitting his head on the wall corner, causing him to fall into a coma, which has lasted for several days...

  Gao Hong's personality has always been open-minded, and soon he laughed it off, thinking, "It's not all bad that relatives are heartless, at least in the future I won't have to deal with those so-called 'relatives' who don't have an emotional foundation. Hey, after crossing over, memories can be inherited, but emotions are still my original ones, is emotion imprinted on the soul rather than the brain?"

  Since he didn't plan to associate with those "relatives", Gao Hong decided not to use the child's original name. Due to concerns that there might be a "Gao Hong" in this time and space, his own name was also unsuitable. Finally, Gao Hong thought of a new name and told the uncle and aunt at the public security bureau that he was called "Gao Jun".

  This "army" character actually comes from a player who was once as famous as Gao Hong in his playing days, and also had the reputation of being unable to score goals. Unlike Gao Hong, who excelled at grasping easy scoring opportunities and scoring with the most reasonable and unadorned way, the talented forward nicknamed "Pepper" Hu Junming played in a very unreasonable way, but always managed to turn non-scoring opportunities into goals in unexpected ways, becoming one of China's top scorers at the time.

  Of course, in terms of practicality, Gao Hong is still the better shooter, with a stability that's frightening. In his heyday, he would often come off the bench and still manage to score at an incredible rate, averaging almost a goal and half an assist per game, earning him multiple Golden Boot awards. His coach Xu Genbao even praised him, saying "What are Hao Haidong and Fan Zhiyi's talents compared to Gao Hong? He can score 7 or 8 goals out of 10 shots, that's what I call a genius!"

  Gao Hongbo's strengths are not just his accuracy in shooting and calmness in front of the goal, but also his world-class positioning and anticipation of the ball route. However, it seems that fate is making things difficult for Chinese football, as Gao Hongbo, who has an unparalleled business sense, was born with a congenital lung function deficiency, and his maximum oxygen intake is even lower than that of an underage girl...

  This undoubtedly greatly limited Gao Hong's physical ability, to the extent that his running distance per game was not even comparable to that of a goalkeeper. Opportunities on the field are created by running, and if you can't run at all, the opportunities you get in each game will be very limited. At the same time, coaches tend to let him substitute into the game, which means less playing time and naturally fewer scoring opportunities. What's more deadly is that this congenital deficiency greatly limited Gao Hong's growth and development during his youth, making him a "three-no" player with no strength, speed, or endurance. Football is a sport after all, and without excellent physical quality as the foundation, good technique and awareness are not enough to become a world-class superstar.

  In fact, there are many similar examples in the history of Chinese football. Some players have world-class standards in one or two aspects, but they all have fatal congenital defects in other aspects (see below), so their growth space is relatively limited. To put it bluntly, China has a small population of footballers, and the selection margin is smaller. Modern football was born in the West, and Chinese people are not as compatible with Westerners in terms of diet, culture, and other aspects. In addition, the quality of grassroots youth coaches is low, which further reduces the success rate of young players. It's much harder for China to produce a player with strong overall abilities compared to those football powers. Even having a player like Gao Hong, who has obvious strengths and weaknesses, is considered lucky...

  But this time, the traversal gave Gao Jun a glimmer of hope. Especially after the Public Security Bureau helped him do a full-body examination and found everything normal, he thought about being able to play football with a healthy body, and Gao Jun couldn't help but look forward to it. "This body is also a bit weak, but it's definitely stronger than my original body which had congenital lung function deficiency. As long as I can reach the level of an ordinary adult male, after recovering from injury, at least reaching the standard of a top Asian striker shouldn't be difficult. Since heaven has given me this chance, let me start by being a football player again and continue to fight for the salvation of Chinese football!"

  Moreover, Gao Hongbo soon realized that this young man was just the right age to catch up with the last batch of talents before Chinese football hit rock bottom, namely the 85 National Youth and 88 National Junior teams. When he coached the national team, it was based on these players as the backbone, plus a few scattered talents from the next two batches of national youth and junior teams, and several stable old generals, formed a national team that broke the "32-year unbeaten Korean" curse, although ultimately due to factors outside football, the achievement was in vain. However, the strength of this batch of players is still beyond doubt.

  Note 1: At least one of speed, strength and endurance must be at a world-class level (not necessarily the best, for example, being able to run 100m in 11.5 seconds, plus a relatively fast start, can give a significant advantage in competition). For example, Messi's speed (Messi's absolute speed is not the fastest, but he can still run 100m in 11 seconds, and his foot frequency is unmatched), Beckham's endurance (he can cover a distance of up to 14,000 meters in one game), Zidane's strength, while Maradona has both speed and strength, plus unparalleled technique and ball control, making him a legendary king. Having exceptional height or jumping ability is also an advantage, but it requires a certain level of strength support, balance is the same, agility requires speed and explosive power to match, so its value is not as high as other attributes...